The Theft of Privacy

My daughter and her husband recently purchased a home in a new subdivision north of Whitby. It is a beautiful two story home with a modest but functional backyard on an attractive street. The original plans for the subdivision called for a small plaza to be built at the end of their street with a convenience store, drug store, dry cleaners and pet food shop shown on the plans as examples of the type of stores that might lease the plaza.

Since it was a new subdivision, the street behind their home was still under construction at the time of their purchase. However they had looked at the plans for those homes and saw nothing that would concern them. Of course there was a slight rise in the surface of the land that would make the elevation of those homes one-half story higher than their own, but those houses were to the north and there would be no problem with sunlight being blocked.

What they were unprepared for was the construction of wooden decks on those new houses being built way up on the second story. Being all ready half a story higher than my daughter's, the owners of those houses can sit on their second story balcony and look south out over the roof of the other houses almost to Lake Ontario in the distance.

Well, you might think, that would certainly be an attractive feature. But what it also means, given the smallness of the backyards in that neighbourhood, is that my daughter has families sitting out all summer looking directly down into her backyard and watching everything she and her family do in their yard. Functionally, what it means is that my daughter and her family have had their privacy stolen. With the family behind them virtually living on their deck all summer, my daughter can never go into her backyard without being under constant observation and being the occasional object of discussion.

It can also be argued that my daughter has been robbed of at least some of the value of her home. The lack of privacy in her backyard would become immediately obvious to any interested purchaser. Of course that is why the construction of the homes behind my daughter's street were delayed until all the houses on her street were already purchased.

This unhappy little story raises the question of the value of privacy, not only in new subdivisions, but in more established subdivisions such as are found in Scarborough Guildwood. New purchasers are beginning to put up two story homes in neighbourhoods comprised of one story bungalows. While not many blatantly put up decks on the second story, where they sit snooping on their neighbours, there is little to stop them from doing so.

How much is our privacy worth?

Of course there is more to my daughter's story. Once all the homes in her new subdivision were built, the developer immediately applied for a variance to permit him to change the zoning to allow him to replace the planned small plaza with even more housing. And, of course, that variance was immediately granted despite almost universal community outrage. Now, instead of being able to walk to the store, my daughter has to drive. Instead of an environmentally friendly neighbourhood, she is forced to add an increasing share of carbon dioxide and methane to our climate woes.

As the population increases and with it the density, privacy and the quality of our lives need to be balanced against the need for more compact neighbourhoods. Developers need to be encouraged, or legislated, to build more environmentally friendly communities where our homes can be a refuge and where automobiles are not required for us to reach out for basic necessities such as milk or bread.

The Green Party stands for well designed and livable communities.